title: Wide-ranging barcoding aids discovery of one-third increase of species richness in presumably well-investigated moths.
abstract: Rapid development of broad regional and international DNA barcode libraries have brought new insights into the species diversity of many areas and groups. Many new species, even within well-investigated species groups, have been discovered based initially on differences in DNA barcodes. We barcoded 437 collection specimens belonging to 40 pre-identified Palearctic species of the Elachista bifasciella group of moths (Lepidoptera, Elachistidae). Although the study group has been a subject of several careful morphological taxonomic examinations, an unexpectedly high number of previously undetected putative species is revealed, resulting in a 34% rise in species number in the study area. The validity of putative new species was subsequently supported with diagnostic morphological traits. We show that DNA barcodes provide a powerful method of detecting potential new species even in taxonomic groups and geographic areas that have previously been under considerable morphological taxonomic scrutiny.
authors.affiliation: Biodiversity Unit, Department of Biology, PO Box 3000, University of Oulu, Finland.
authors.forename: Marko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mutanen
authors.forename: Lauri
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kaila
authors.forename: Jukka
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tabell
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic / Q000379:methods*; D009036:Moths / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny